Political Discussion

Chucktshoes said:
In the last debate Tulsi staked her to the wall on her record as a prosecutor and Kamala’s way of attempted deflections afterwards in interviews I believe let the observant gain an insight into her real character. It wasn’t a flattering one.
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Gotcha. Her record as a prosecutor is the thing that I have the most issues with (former criminal defense atty here). And I'm not sure a lot of people had dug into that. So it being brought out and adversely affecting her makes sense.
 
Teeeee said:
Gotcha. Her record as a prosecutor is the thing that I have the most issues with (former criminal defense atty here). And I'm not sure a lot of people had dug into that. So it being brought out and adversely affecting her makes sense.
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The thing that stuck out to me the most was the statement that she kept back exculpatory information that would have freed someone from death row until forced to release it by the courts. In my eyes that’s tantamount to attempted murder. I’m already a strong opponent of the death penalty, but to withhold evidence that may free an innocent man from death row is utterly reprehensible.
 
Chucktshoes said:
In the last debate Tulsi staked her to the wall on her record as a prosecutor and Kamala’s way of attempted deflections afterwards in interviews I believe let the observant gain an insight into her real character. It wasn’t a flattering one.
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Oh goodness. I just watched the exchange between Tulsi and Kamala. Tulsi brought up every.single.one. of my concerns with Kamala. Damn.

Tulsi and her abysmal record on gay rights though. SMH.
 
Chucktshoes said:
The thing that stuck out to me the most was the statement that she kept back exculpatory information that would have freed someone from death row until forced to release it by the courts. In my eyes that’s tantamount to attempted murder. I’m already a strong opponent of the death penalty, but to without evidence that may free an innocent man from death row is utterly reprehensible.
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Agreed. Dig into her record more if you want to be angrier.

See? Common ground!!!! ;)
 
We have all heard that indicators are pointing towards a possible recession over the last week.

Trump says the economy is strong, which is true for the top 1%. It's the perfect economy for them.

But today there are signs that while the Trump administration the economy is strong publicly, they may be worried it just might not be.

Today they announced a plan for a payroll tax cut to boost the economy and relax fears of a possible recession.

But of course it's corporations that benefit from this and we the people who get hurt. Corporations will have to pay less of a payroll tax which mostly goes towards Social Security and Medicare.

Basically, further cash strapping the system that is already heading towards going under if it isn't overhauled.
 
President Trump is set to change decades old immigration policies yet again.
This time they are changing the agreement that states that they can not detain children for more than 20 days. The new policies will allow them to detain children indefinitely.

This change comes after much backlash this year about children being separated from their families. The issue was the children's parents could be detained indefinitely, but the children could not be detained for more than 20 days.

Trump says these policy changes are to address the issue of children being separated from their parent / families and they can now be detained together indefinitely.


But you have got to ask yourself, is it human to detain a child indefinitely in one of these detention centers?
 
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www.cnn.com

Giuliani says he met with Ukrainian official to discuss Biden

Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he had spoken with a Ukrainian official about Joe Biden's possible role in that government's dismissal of a prosecutor who investigated Biden's son.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

Giuliani says he met with Ukrainian official to discuss Biden

The move shows the former New York mayor is making a renewed push for the country to investigate President Donald Trump's political enemies. Giuliani, who serves as Trump's personal attorney, has long lobbied Ukraine to investigate the former vice president's call in 2016 to remove the country' top prosecutor, who at one point had been investigating a Ukrainian natural gas company connected to Biden's son, Hunter.
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Indymisanthrope said:
I'd like to see CDC finally be able to address the issue head-on.
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ayayrawn said:
Yikes.
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The irony being that none of the news sources being discussed are actually particularly left wing. CNN is as centrist as it gets. Ditto for the NYT and WaPo. NPR could maybe be called left-center but all that Koch brothers and fossil fuel money they take clouds that assertion. There is a reason the only time they mention Yang or Sanders, it's to rip into them.

The Intercept, Common Dreams, Democracy Now and to a lesser extent the Guardian... those are truly left wing sources. Except that unlike Breitbart, they are fact based and typically nonpartisan in the their reporting (editorials are a different convo).


Edit: Also, there is no way Daily Beast should that far to the left on that chart.
 
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Dtknuckles said:
I wish all news outlets reported on statistics and science like 538.

fivethirtyeight.com

Can We Prevent Mass Shootings By Preventing Suicide?

Imagine a doctor who wanted to treat a broken leg with chemotherapy. Or treat cancer with a cast. Just because cancer and broken legs are both things that happe…
fivethirtyeight.com fivethirtyeight.com
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That is a fairly well written article. I think it overstated the support amongst gun owners for ERPOs, but it does touch upon something that my friends and I have long ago concluded in that the big mass shootings are essentially angry suicides in want of company. I believe that the same contagion effect that is the reason why news outlets don’t publicize details of suicides is at play with these types of mass shootings as well.

Going after guns isn’t going to be that effective for this issue. Especially not without violating the rights of millions of people. Chalking them up to a nebulous explanation of “mental illness” doesn’t cut it either. Mass shootings are a symptom of the greater sickness in our society. Until we start addressing the increasing isolation of people and the incentives like media attention that make them alluring, I don’t think we’re going to reverse the course that was set with Columbine.
 
Chucktshoes said:
That is a fairly well written article. I think it overstated the support amongst gun owners for ERPOs, but it does touch upon something that my friends and I have long ago concluded in that the big mass shootings are essentially angry suicides in want of company. I believe that the same contagion effect that is the reason why news outlets don’t publicize details of suicides is at play with these types of mass shootings as well.

Going after guns isn’t going to be that effective for this issue. Especially not without violating the rights of millions of people. Chalking them up to a nebulous explanation of “mental illness” doesn’t cut it either. Mass shootings are a symptom of the greater sickness in our society. Until we start addressing the increasing isolation of people and the incentives like media attention that make them alluring, I don’t think we’re going to reverse the course that was set with Columbine.
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I have no ideas how to solve the mass shooting crisis. I agree that just relying on gun control will not cut it. I don't own guns and don't ever want to. I think you own guns, if I remember correctly. So we kinda come at this from different points of view. Do you have any ideas how to fix this? I feel like it is going to take a huge amount of work. Not just legislation, but a focus on mental health which is something that our country has not been keen to do. How do we come up with a solution that almost everyone (because we aren't going to get everyone on board) can agree with? It can't be BAN ALL GUNS and it can't be EVERYONE BUY A GUN. But what is it? I'm not arguing, I'm genuinely curious what it is gonna take and what your thoughts are.
 
Like everyone else, I wish I had an solution. I don’t. Then again, I don’t think there is A solution. I do think there are lots of small ways we can address the issue. It will take a lot of action from lots of different folks.

One of them is that the media needs to start treating mass shootings like they do suicides. Stop making the fuckers famous. It would also be nice if they were honest about how they presented data like “there have been over 250 mass shootings in 2019”. They make it sound like they were all the kind of stories they like to splash across the news, but they are multiple different kinds of murders. The vast majority were related to gang violence. The methods to address those are very different than the methods to address workplace killings or the bowl cut adorned school killers.

I also think that our current method of dealing with the mentally ill in this country over the last 30-40 years has been a failure. I know it may sound odd coming from me, but I think we need to fund state asylums and make it easier to institutionalize the mentally ill again. As of now our streets and our prisons are our asylums and that state of affairs is unconscionable.

There are some very serious cultural issues at work here as well. Parents need to land the fucking helicopters and let kids learn how to solve problems for themselves, and by themselves. Stop it with the scheduled and supervised play dates and throw them out of the house and tell them to go make friends and to be home for dinner. Let them free range a bit, it’s good for them. We keep children infantilized for so long that they never learn how to fail or even take on challenges where that’s an option. Then as they age and face failure because life doesn’t care about their feelings, they can’t cope. Most just end up in their parents basements with $100k in student loan debt whining on the internet, but some lash out violently.

Speaking of the internet, I think greatly restricting access to it by children and young teens would be a positive action as well. The internet doesn’t bring folks together, it isolates them. Real life human interaction in meatspace is invaluable in the growth and development of a functional person. The interaction provided by the web on that front is a lie and I believe it’s feeding into the growing insanity that surrounds us.

Our society and culture is growing increasingly disconnected from who the human animal is and it’s making us crazy. Spree killings are simply one symptom of that.
 
Chucktshoes said:
I also think that our current method of dealing with the mentally ill in this country over the last 30-40 years has been a failure. I know it may sound odd coming from me, but I think we need to fund state asylums and make it easier to institutionalize the mentally ill again. As of now our streets and our prisons are our asylums and that state of affairs is unconscionable.
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Totally agree with you here. It's sad. Actually recently in LA a group of activists pressured the board of supervisors to stop a contract with a MH facility builder to not build a new prison/mental health building. They are looking for other ways of rehabilitating people with MH problem that commit the crimes. I was excited to see this. A lot more resources need to be sunk into providing care and treatment for people. I worry about over institutionalizing though. There is not a good track record there.

Chucktshoes said:
There are some very serious cultural issues at work here as well. Parents need to land the fucking helicopters and let kids learn how to solve problems for themselves, and by themselves. Stop it with the scheduled and supervised play dates and throw them out of the house and tell them to go make friends and to be home for dinner. Let them free range a bit, it’s good for them. We keep children infantilized for so long that they never learn how to fail or even take on challenges where that’s an option. Then as they age and face failure because life doesn’t care about their feelings, they can’t cope. Most just end up in their parents basements with $100k in student loan debt whining on the internet, but some lash out violently.
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While I'm not saying that this type of parenting is not a problem. I wonder how pervasive this problem is. I work with kids and parents and don't see it that often. Yea I think kids should be allowed to fail and understand the consequences. Play dates depress me. We haven't had to schedule any yet. I am excited about the nature center across the freeway from us. Lots of hiking trails and water 2 seasons out of the year. I plan on spending a lot of time with my son and hopefully with his friends over there. When I was a kid I just walked to my friend's house and knocked on their door.

The last statement about how most end up with 100k in student loan debt wining on the internet I would disagree with. I have seen data that most college students from middle to lower class families choose their degrees pragmatically and may end up with debt but don't wine on the internet. I wouldn't pin this narrative on the right or left. I think its just old people wanting to complain about how things are different.
 
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